Alternative Therapies - what would you trust?

[flutterbybutterfly]

I'm not sure if I can post this but I'm not touting for trade, just asking for a bit of a straw poll for marketing of my new business.

I'm opening (with partners) a Detox and Therapy Centre. At the moment we are thinking about marketing it as: Detox and Alternative Therapy Centre, but I am a bit concerned that using the word "Alternative" might sum up the wrong impression.

Does "Alternative" sound "new-agey" to you???

To give you an idea of the type of business, will be offering:-

Massage, Spa Maternity Treatments, Wraps, Facials, Acupuncture, Hot Stones Massage, Detox packages, Indian Head Massage, Ayurvedic Facial, Cellulite Reduction, Reflexology, Ear Candling, Colonic Irrigation...and more

[frivolous_fay]

Holistic and Pamper sound much more attractive to me than Therapy :)

[LizD]

Personally, I'd choose 'Complementary therapy', as the therapies you suggest are not neccesarily 'alternative', they can be used in addition to conventional medicine.

[Fizog]

I think holistic spa centre sounds better than the above selection. Detox always makes me think of Dettol a bit clinical...once people are in the doors to admire the decor and soak up the ambience your staff can push the detox and suggest a candle for their ears!
The clientele who have the money to get a massage and are worried about their cellulite will be into all the above and word will spread about your wonderful new treatments which you can't get at your bog standard beauty parlour. Am jealous good luck with the venture.

[flutterbybutterfly]

Thanks everyone so far for your replies - it's really useful to see what everyone thinks. Anyone else out there want to pass on their advice???

[melancholly]

i'm a complete 'alternative therapy' sceptic - but, the only way my IBS was fixed was through seeing a kinesiologist..... and it certainly wasn't a placebo effect as, if anything, i wanted to prove it didn't help! good kinesiologists are hard to find, so if you can get someone specialised in that, i'm sure it would be helpful! the place i went to was a 'complementary health centre'. if you want to push therapies rather than facials, having health in the title may help, but if your core business is going to be massages and reflexology, then spa works better!

[Errata]

I'm not sure why people feel the need to detox?I The human body is designed to detoxify itself automatically because otherwise we'd all be dead.

[flutterbybutterfly]

I'm not sure why people feel the need to detox?I The human body is designed to detoxify itself automatically because otherwise we'd all be dead.

Yes it is designed to detoxify itself but compare when we were cavemen to our lifestyles now we must be in system overload! Research points towards many chemicals in our every day products and of course our polluted environment and diet to being contributory factors in the increase of cancers, allergies, ezcema, asthma... We try to work with therapies which are evidence based and chemical free (for example we have a cellulite system with clinical trials proving effectiveness) and if a client benefits from a total detox and it improves their health then they are then likely to accept lifestyle changes to further improve their overall health. Personally I have benefited from detox treatments but in my humble opinion if you just walk away feeling a sense of wellbeing and relaxation then it can be argued that it is worth it.

[cookie54]

i think that some people might go more for the health side of things and some poeople will be after the " treat side" of thing so it might be worth wording it with the main feeling for health and then sub head it with the relaxing bit ....